THIS quaint-looking edifice is situated on the east side of the road from the old bridge over the Kelvin, at Partick, down to the Point-House at Govan Ferry, and nearly opposite the Slit-mill. The house faces south, and was built about 1775, for his country residence, by Robert M'Lintock, merchant in Glasgow. He purchased a number of small lots of land adjacent about the same time, which had no properly distinctive appellation, and he bestowed on the whole the name of Thornbank, which the house has since retained.
Mr. M'Lintock was one of the founders, and a principal partner, of the once well known "Merchants' Bank of Glasgow," which began in 1769 and ended in 1798. Its first office was in the Saltmarket, from which it was removed to a tenement, recently demolished, at the north-west corner of Maxwell Street, its last place of business. As one of the chief Directors, Mr. M'Lintock countersigned the first issue of this old bank's notes, along with the Cashier. Mr. M'Lintock's son-in-law was a well known member of the Faculty of Procurators in Glasgow; and his grandson, also a respected member of that learned body, is Town-Clerk of a neighbouring burgh, and holds several other responsible official appointments.
In 1798 Thornbank House and grounds were sold to Robert Fulton Alexander, another enterprising Glasgow merchant, who had shortly before purchased the immediately adjoining property now called Yorkhill.
In 1807 Mr. Alexander sold Thornbank to Andrew Thomson, private banker and bill-broker in Glasgow. Mr. Thomson was of an old banking race. His grandfather, Andrew Thomson of Faskin, near Airdrie, was one of the early partners of the memorable Ship Bank, under the management of Mr. Robert Carrick; and his father, George Thomson, was the middle partner in the banking firm of Andrew George & Andrew Thomson, in Virginia, and afterwards in Queen Streets. The two Andrew Thomsons of this old company were father and son : in other words, they were grandfather and uncle respectively of Andrew of Thornbank. This private bank was closed in 1793. Thornbank was many years the country residence, in summer, of Andrew Thomson, its owner; his town house having been in St. Enoch Square. One of Mrs. Thomson's sisters was the wife of Major Finlay, Secretary to the Duke of Richmond, brother of Mr. Kirkman Finlay of Castle Toward, and father of the accomplished historian of Greece and faithful Phil-Hellene, the late George Finlay of Athens.
After Thornbank had been possessed by Mr. Andrew Thomson about seventeen years, he sold the house and grounds, in 1824, to Mr. Andrew Gilbert, then of Yorkhill, and Thornbank thereupon became part of Yorkhill estate.
[1878.]
Thornbank is on its last legs. A broad street leading to the Point-House, from the foot of Yorkhill brae on the old Dumbarton road, has been cut through the grounds, and the poor old house will soon be among the things that were.
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